Category: Terror War

So, get your program out so you can follow this thing; While we’re negotiating with Iran over their nuclear ambitions, we’re flying US aircraft in support of Iranian troops in Iraq. We’re also supporting the Saudis as they begin to whack Iranian-supported rebels in Yemen. The war in the Middle East is shaping into a war between Sunnis and Shi’ites. From Fox News;

Top Sunni clerics have voiced their support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen Friday, while top Iranian leaders including President Hasan Rouhani have already condemned the intervention.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon condemned the “Saudi-American attack,” saying “it is the right of Yemen’s people, who are brave and resilient, to fight and resist, and they will succeed.

U.S. officials told the paper that Saudi officials have requested air tankers to refuel planes and for more American-made bombs to continue with the strikes. The U.S. is preparing to help the Saudis once the requests are approved in Washington.

Under the plan, the U.S. would step up its role in a new military coordination center to aid the Saudi Arabia-led campaign.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, the western nations are trying to hammer out a deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions while Iran seeks to have the sanctions against them lifted, according to AFP;

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for the “unjust” sanctions choking the country’s economy to be lifted, with global powers insisting sanctions will only be suspended, not lifted, as a safeguard against any violations.

The emerging accord is to be rounded out with complex technical annexes by a June 30 deadline.

According to Fox News, Iran is “pissed” that Iraqi forces have “partnered” with US airstrikes in the battle for Tikrit;

“[The Iranians] are really pissed that Iraq is choosing to partner with the U.S. in the battle for Tikrit,” the official said.

The heavy involvement of Iran-backed Shiite militias in the battle for Tikrit, currently held by the Islamic State, was a big factor in the United States’ initial reluctance to get involved.

But with the U.S. launching airstrikes, Iran has threatened to order all its Shiite militias, including members of the powerful Badr Brigade, out of the area and in some cases out of Iraq, according to the official.

“They will probably send them to Yemen,” he said, referring to the widespread fighting in the unstable nation where Saudi Arabia and others are now battling Iran-backed forces for control.

Meanwhile, in Yemen, the US rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their F-15 jet over the Gulf of Aden during combat operations against the Houthis, reports Fox News;

The two airmen ejected from their F-15 and were rescued around 5:20 p.m. ET in international waters by a HH-60 helicopter, a U.S. defense official said Friday.

The USS Sterett, USS New York and USS Djibouti participated in the operation, the official said.

Also on Friday, Saudi Arabia praised the U.S. for helping an Arab air campaign against Yemen’s rebels.

The Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, said the U.S. has been “very supportive” of the operation politically and logistically. He said the kingdom is “very pleased” with the level of coordination with the U.S., which has established a joint planning cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate U.S. and military and intelligence support.

So, let me see if I got this straight – we’re fighting against the Sunni ISIS thugs and we’re trying to dethrone the Syrian Assad who is supported by the Shi’ite Iranians and opposed by ISIS. The Iranians are also fighting against ISIS, along with their proxies Hezbollah. We’re supporting the Sunni Saudi government who is fighting the Iranian-backed Shi’ite rebels in Yemen. It all makes perfect sense. Or not.

A “very shocked” ninja sent us a link to Fox News‘ Catherine Herridge who reports that three of the five Guantanamo terrorists who were traded for Bowe Bergdahl last year have been trying to “reengage” with their old terror network pals;

The official who described the attempts by three to make contact did not identify the men by name. But the evidence came to light through intelligence from liaison services and monitored communications available to the U.S. government.

A defense official did not dispute the claim, emphasizing that one of the men has come “very close, trying to provide advice, council or inspiration” to his terror network, while the other two had not crossed that line.

In January, CNN was first to report, and U.S. officials later confirmed, that one of the five fighters was making phone calls to militants. The latest claim indicates those efforts were more widespread.

The recidivism rate among Guantanamo graduates has been about 30% according to some folks;

SEPTEMBER 2014 REPORT OF THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

As of July 15, 2014, 620 detainees have been transferred out of the detention facility.

Of the total, 107, or 17.3 percent, have been “confirmed of re-engaging,” which is defined as being directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities. Nearly half of those — 48 — are now dead or in custody.

Of the total, 77, or 12.4 percent, are “suspected of re-engaging.” This category comprises detainees for whom it’s plausible that they are directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities, but it can’t be verified or is based only on information from a single source. Sixteen of these 77 are now dead or in custody.

So 3 out of 5 will probably alter the statistics.

Jerry920 and Bobo send us links to the story of cousins Hasan and Jonas Edmonds. Hasan was an Illinois National Guardsman. Both were arrested by feds for planning to provide material support to ISIS, according to ABC News;

Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport as he was trying to fly to Egypt, according to authorities. His cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his home.

Both men are from Aurora, Illinois, and will be appearing in federal court later today.

Hasan Edmonds first came onto the FBI’s radar in late 2014 as he hatched a plan for Hasan Edmonds to join ISIS overseas while Jonas Edmonds launched an attack inside the United States, according to the Justice Department.

According to Business Insider, Hasan was on his way to “link up” with ISIS before they pulled off an attack on a National Guard base in Illinois. Luckily, they stopped by to brief an undercover FBI agent on their intentions. Pretty soon we’re going run out luck in that regard.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the Washington Post opinion piece written by retired Marine Corps colonel Gary Anderson who presents the case for returning US troops to Iraq. He discusses the battle in Tikrit and how the Iraqis are having real trouble prying the ISIS troops from their defenses, and he talks about how the US military trained hard and long to become experts at Military Operations in Urban Terrain (that’s what they called it in my days) and he arrives at this conclusion;

Anyone who has seen both real and simulated urban combat knows that only experienced, well-trained troops will be able to oust the Islamic State from the Iraqi and Syrian cities it has infested. This is the hard truth: U.S.-trained Iraqi troops and Syrian rebels may be able to hold those cities once they are cleared, but only Americans are capable of defeating the Islamic State in close urban combat.

I’ll agree with Mr. Anderson that US troops are the best trained, most experienced troops in the world at this type of combat, that ISIS troops have little hope of defeating determined US soldiers and Marines, but I disagree that US troops should be on the front lines of the war against ISIS. It’s not the troops, it’s the politicians- the politicians inside and outside of the halls of government.

ISIS is a brutal enemy that needs to be dealt with in a brutal, take-no-prisoners manner. The soldiers opposing ISIS troops need to kill them all without respect to the laws of land warfare, because that’s the only way that ISIS will ever be defeated. The lawyers and hand-wringers at the Pentagon would never allow US troops to engage in the type of warfare that needs to be inflicted on daesh forces. Those Rules of Engagement (ROE) will never be written.

As it is, we fret some Marines who urinated on dead enemy or pose with the body parts of suicide bombers. We pull Silver Star medals from officers who kill the enemies that bomb and maim our own troops.

The Iranians, the Iraqis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians aren’t hamstrung by public opinion and hand-wringing non-combatants who don’t mind killing our own troops with an overly-restrictive and confusing ROE. The pointy-headed class will never allow US troops fight the war that needs to be fought to defeat ISIS, so keep our troops in a support role, and let our allies deal directly with the enemy.

When the White House planned the withdrawal from Afghanistan, they intended for there to be only 5500 troops still there at the end of this year, down from the ten thousand there currently. There has been speculation in the last several weeks that they were planning to slow the withdrawal because of deteriorating security conditions there. Well, they announced the plan yesterday according to Fox News;

Obama stressed that the “specific trajectory” of the drawdown for 2016 will be established later this year — and he still wants to stick to the plan of reducing the force to a “Kabul-based embassy presence” by the time he leaves office. “That hasn’t changed,” Obama said on Tuesday.

The pace of the U.S. troop drawdown was the focus of daylong White House meetings, and the centerpiece of [Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani’s highly anticipated visit to the U.S.

[…]

For Obama, Ghani represents the last, best hope to make good on the president’s promise to end America’s longest war by the time he leaves office, keeping just a thousand or so troops at the embassy to coordinate security.

[…]

Ghani’s government asked the president to keep more U.S. troops in his country for longer, as Afghan forces brace for a tough spring fighting season and contend with Islamic State fighters looking to recruit on their soil.

The Associated Press quotes Ghani;

Ghani thanked American servicemen and women and civilian contractors. “I’d also like to thank the American taxpayer for his and her hard-earned dollars,” he said.

[…]

He said the slower U.S. troop withdrawal “will be used to accelerate reforms, to ensure that the Afghan National Security Forces are much better led, equipped, trained and are focused on their fundamental mission. He added that he was pleased to say that “the departure of 120,000 international troops has not brought about the security gap or collapse that was often anticipated.”

Yeah, that hasn’t happened in the last 14 years with tens of thousand US troops, but it will this year with an extra 5,000. Totally credible.

A scant few months, the President touted his strategy in Yemen as a model for future operations in the war against Islamic extremism. Millions of US dollars in equipment has since been lost, the Yemeni president is out-of-office, and the parliament has been dissolved. The US embassy has been evacuated and the last US troops have been withdrawn. al Qaeda-backed Shiite rebels run the failed government. From Fox News;

The shift has left Obama open to criticism that he failed to anticipate the risks of a light footprint strategy that aims to put fragile governments and beleaguered local security forces, not the U.S. military, at the forefront.

Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, said even the most optimistic regional experts did not share Obama’s view that the Yemen campaign was a model of success.

“It was being defined in terms of what we were doing to develop local forces and use drones and counter the immediate and real security threat,” said Bodine, now director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. “But what we hadn’t done, certainly had not done visibly enough, was get at the economic and governance issues that were driving the problem.”

Again with the economic BS. There is an entirely military solution – fight these scum unrelentingly until so many of the die horrible, painful deaths that the others decide that it’s not worth it to fight. You know, the whole purpose of fighting wars.

According to CBS News, Brett Felton served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment until he left the service in 2007. Now, he has returned with the sole mission of helping Iraqi Christians to defend themselves against ISIS

“If you look at him, he’s literally all tattooed out like a biker,” [60 Minutes producer Jeff] Newton told 60 Minutes Overtime. “But if you look really closely at his tattoos, they’re like Jesus Christ crying blood tears out of his eyes and stuff like that –so he’s kind of a hardcore Christian.”

[…]

Like many veterans, Felton says he wanted to return to Iraq as soon as he arrived home. A few months ago, he managed to slip back into the country from Lebanon, where he was studying abroad.

[…]

Some Christians in the region were forced to convert to Islam by ISIS attackers. Many had fled. But a few Christian men decided to stay behind and form fledgling militias to save their villages. Few of these men are professional soldiers, say Logan and Newton.

“They’re under-funded. They don’t have good weapons. They’re completely outgunned by the Islamic State,” says Lara Logan. “When you’re with them, you have this terrible feeling that many of them would be massacred if the Islamic State really turned its attention to taking back those those villages.”

Thanks to T Breezy for the link.

Remember how our fight against al Qaeda in Yemen was supposed to be the model for how we fight terrorists in the Age of Obama? I’m hoping that was just politics. According to the New York Times, the Houthis have taken control of much of Yemen’s third largest city, Taiz;

A senior security official in Taiz said the Houthis were flying troops and military equipment into the city’s airport, bolstering claims they were preparing a broader offensive.

Yemen has been gripped by unusually deadly and widespread violence for almost a week, raising fears that the impoverished country is headed inexorably toward civil war. Diplomats have all but admitted failure in brokering negotiations to end the conflict, while opposing forces on the ground accelerate their preparations for battle.

Yemen’s powerful Al Qaeda affiliate has capitalized on the political chaos to carry out attacks on the security forces.

The Associated Press reports that US military personnel have evacuated a key base used for drone operations in the region;

Yemen’s Shiite rebels issued a call to arms Saturday to battle forces loyal to the country’s embattled president, as U.S. troops were evacuating a southern air base crucial to America’s drone strike program after al-Qaida militants seized a nearby city.

The turmoil comes as Yemen battles al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the target of the drone program, and faces a purported affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings killing at least 137 people Friday.

I think we need a new model for the war to defeat these thugs. We probably need it pretty quickly and pretty violently.